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The battle lines have been drawn between Cornwall city council and its firefighters, due to the cost of this mandated service and the impact it has on property taxes.

Coun. Andre Rivette pushed for information and put the question of staffing levels on the table early in the ongoing budget process. Rivette's questions led to wondering whether platoons of 13, or some other number, backfilled by part-time firefighters, could accomplish the same goal at a lower overall cost. It's a reasonable question.

Not to be outdone, retired firefighter Coun. Mark MacDonald took out his flamethrower last week and compared the insatiable appetite of the fire department's budget to that of farm animals. The comment seemed a bit rich coming from someone who may not have been so quick to use that comparison when he was in the uniform.

Firefighters responded in kind Monday, their ranks swelling the pews in council chambers as a show of strength and support for, well, themselves. Association president Jason Crites was charitable in his choice of words as he fulfilled his duties to defend and protect the interests of his members.

Respectful as he was in comparison, Crites didn't offer up any concrete ideas in his media interviews as to how the association can help moderate the cost of providing adequate fire protection to the City of Cornwall. He actually suggested the city's platoons should number high enough to have a minimum of 15 firefighters available at all times.

We need firefighters and we need enough of them to prevent and extinguish fires, and conduct the other tasks that have been given to them. They deserve to be fairly compensated for the value of those responsibilities. To those who've been in positions to call upon their skills, they're worth every last dollar.

But pushing for more - be it in wages or numbers - is ultimately counterproductive to all our interests in a fiscal environment where the desire to just keep paying more has evaporated.

Instead of gaining public support for your position through fear, stay at the table - no arbitrators, thanks - and settle agreements that respect those whose property taxes fund your positions. Tell us about your ideas on how you can do what you're mandated to do while keeping a lid on your costs.

Working together to contain costs instead of putting up a firewall around the department's budget would extinguish the fire in the bellies of those who are after your budget pretty quickly. Hopefully, cooler heads on all sides will work to that end instead of running for more gas to throw on this fire of rhetoric.